Newsletter 2018

We have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself/herself through ac-tively engaging in purposeful play. We have enormous trust in the develop-mental abilities of the children. Working as guides and facilitators, we create a well-prepared environment filled with objects of beauty designed to inspire our children with a deep love and reverence for learning.

One of our most significant programs is the concept of our Grace and

Courtesy program.

Many of our existing parents understand how and why we believe in this. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, I will try to define it for you.

Grace and Courtesy should promote harmony in every level of human exist-ence. It is characterised by effortless beauty, kindness and warmth. It is sim-ilar to politeness but of a more voluntary, generous nature, actively mean-ing to be helpful. Grace and Courtesy lessons are continuous, and encourage children to become aware and mindful of what they are doing in the class-room.

For example, teachers may start a conversation about the meaning of the word sorry . Understanding the meaning behind it is an important part of in-stilling empathy .

It is important to recognise that these are learned skills and must be encour-aged and supported. Through this process the children gradually build the social skills of a harmonious society. They find activities that meet their inner need for self-development and as their space and autonomy are respected, a sense of calm and purposefulness

If done properly, Grace and Courtesy should pro-mote collabo-ration in all areas of life. It is true that nearly every-thing we say and do whether alone or with others con-tains aspects of grace and courtesy. The teachers and I witness our children reveal themselves every day. We watch proudly as they continue to develop more independence and confidence .

What’s the buzz? Let

us tell you what is happening dur-

ing May till September 2018?

2 May 2018 . Student Work placement in

the Joeys : We welcome CHIDI .

6 May Green Fair

15 May 2018 . Student Work placement

in the Puggles : We welcome MEI

16 May

Spotty

bears

amazing

journey

10 am :

All welcome

16 May Ramadan

26 May Sorry day

12 June Staff development evening with

Fran Grant . Indigenous perspec-

tives in Early learning

22 June Lantern Parade

8 July NAIDOC week Under the theme -

Because of her, we can! - NAIDOC Week

2018 will be held nationally from Sunday 8 July

and continue through to Sunday 15 July.

13 July Mathew Doyle performance (10

am : All welcome )

24 July Sustainability meeting (All invited

and encouraged to join at 7pm)

20 August Book week

C L O V E L L Y C H I L D C A R E C E N T R E M A Y 2 0 1 8

Kitchen Garden: We love to nurture our nature.

While planting ivy to grow around the piano, these two boys discovered the brass stings underneath

the piano frame. They were amazed by the thundery sound when they ran their fingers across the

strings. This is what they said about it .“Here is the thunder to bring the rain for the garden.”

This new mannequin head is being used as a planter. Isabel-Rose helped to choose the succulent that represented its hair and placed it on the table. It adds the ambience for our table planter.

Kitchen garden :Behind the scenes

Our beeswax products were a hit at the Green Fair. Reducing the use of plas-tic is full frontal in our environmental curriculum this year. We teach the chil-dren how to be sustainable on a daily basis. To reduce waste in our centre, we began to use wax wraps on our meals They are really useful to wrap sand-wiches and cover bowls, instead of using cling wrap or aluminium foil.

Our beeswax products and all other hand made products are on sale

in the office foyer everyday

GREEN FAIR REFLECTIONS – Here is a reminder why CLOVELLY CHILDREN’S

CENTRE values sustainable practice and showcases our philosophy at our

annual Green Fair Towards a D.I.R.E.C.T Model of Sustainability

'Without a shift in both our thinking and practice, we are unlikely

to effect the change we seek.'

Design

Exploring new ways to effect lasting change in existing systems

and processes.

Innovation

Creating new pathways and technologies to support reuse practices

in local communities.

Rebuild

Exploring opportunities for minimising reliance on our finite natu-

ral resources.

Education

Working with all levels of the community, schools, business and

industry to improve waste management processes.

Community

We are all in this together, without a cooperative approach lasting

change is impossible.

Teaching

Providing holistic arts and education programs

for educators, kids and the community.

Re-framing, Re-using and Re-inventing

Some of the highlights were: The children really loved DIVER DAVE and Jam on toast. Hobo Bob is also such an essential part of our fair . The parents and the children also raved about the OZ tots per-formance with our own staff member, Mikey as-sisting the dance teacher. Coincidently, Mikey was the first little boy to take part in Oz tots many years ago … (he was about 4/5 yrs. ) Marcia re-membered he had a blue TUTU. Mikey still has it and he told me he would bring it in to show the children this coming week. The face painting was also a crowd pleaser, with Elle’s mum Jane work-ing 4 hours straight till 1.30 .It worked very well

As always our children al-so contributed. Inspired by our bees, the children created and designed eco wraps, and rolled wax can-dles. (Both products made with organic bees wax)

Our kitchen garden program provided a creative platform for our children to also make a variety of jams such as tomato, fig and plum during class. Stephanie Alexander would be super proud.

We have had very positive feedback. Even

though I believe it was quieter than in the

past, our fund raising result was actually re-

ally good. There was a slow but steady

stream of visitors.

The Kitchen Garden Programme not only offers the children a connection with their environment but also fosters a variety of children’s learning - one of these is early literacy. The Joeys helped create labels for the jam, they volun-teered to write all the labels by copying Athe’s handwriting. The younger Joeys helped to decorate the stickers to make them look colourful.

Community Building News bits

Our final leg of the journey was meeting at The Trade Hall in the city. This took place

from 5pm and went on till 7pm .This was deeply moving as hundreds of our fellow ed-

ucators in Sydney were there and stood shoulder to shoulder.

In this very room, many others before us have stood up for fairness, justice and deter-

mination to be valued and recognised. For me personally, meeting up in the city re-

minded me once again how important it is to support early childhood educators.

Feedback from The BIG STEPS campaign 27 March 2018

Once again thank you for your unwavering support in valuing the work

we do. We feel extremely lucky to work within this special community.

This is the THIRD time Clovelly childcare has taken part in walk off ac-

tion. This one was the biggest walk off yet. We met up with the ROCK

childcare educators who also walked off their floor at 3pm in Randwick.

We sang and chanted in solidarity through Avoca Street CCC

We made a great connection with Sydney Eastern suburbs Boomer-ang Bags. This was due to a sharing of ideas with

EXPLORE AND DEVELOP Early learning centre in Ashfield. The director and two of her staff participated in sewing the boomerang bags at our

green fair.. We love to create new

community partner-

ships.

Last month CCCC was chosen to host the MUNCH AND MOVE’S gardening workshop for early childhood practitioners. As a re-sult of this we have now made strong con-nections to THE EDIBLE GARDENS PROJECT who presented the workshop . At this spe-cial occasion, we were able to showcase our award winning garden to 25 fellow Early Learning Years educators from differ-ent centres. We were complimented on our SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES and were told that our centre epitomises the VERY best in developing authentic mini ecosys-tems in our outdoor area. We set a shining example of how our community childcare centre is intending to work towards sus-tainable and self sufficient practices in NSW. We also learned how to make simple worm farms for our garden using plastic pipes. ATHE has already started con-structing them with the help of John, our resident builder. Kitchen garden

Puggles

“I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy god-mother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

What does adventure look like for babies? Everyday LIFE IS AN AD-VENTURE

And how are we as educators encouraging the development of curiosity and adven-ture in babies? Our educators are adventurous and pro-vide opportunities for our puggle children to develop their sense of curiosity through discovery and exploration.

There was great celebration as our long awaited shed has been built and is finished. The

children have had so much enjoyment watching our lovely resident builder John (JB) build

the shed. They have enjoyed the process of John bringing in the wood, measuring, sawing

and hammering the pieces of wood together.

We loved the beautiful butterfly enclosure set up in the Plateenas garden in March .The older Puggles

remembered the Puggle caterpillar book they wrote last year. At first the children entered very slowly,

but when they saw the butterflies, a look of total wonder and surprise came across their face. It was very

exciting for us to witness our baba’s real life learning miracles first hand .We will continue to develop

further understanding of lifecycles in the coming months.

The children continue to connect to

their natural world through nature

and their natural environment as

they meet Clovelly's new resident

guinea pigs .

The Puggles have had a very productive busy cou-

ple of months ,since our last newsletter. They con-

tinue to be curious and have a sense of wonder as

they engage and explore the many learning-

opportunities on offer.

We have seen many successes in development

over the last couple of months, as the children begin to

crawl, walk, talk and toilet.

The children have had a keen interest in exploring shape

and colour through painting, coloured magnetic shapes

and shape boxes.

Butterfly miracle

Puggles Holistic approaches –We believe in teaching and learn-

ing through recognition of the mind, body and spirit. Pay-ing attention to a child’s physical, personal, social & emo-tional, cognitive and spiritual wellbeing aspects of learn-ing. Foster and enhance children’s understanding of the natural environment and the connections between the people, plants, animals and the land.

Plateenas WONDER IN LIFE CYCLES

Plateenas News!

May

There has been a lot

happening within the

Plateenas program

over the past couple of

months. In early

March, we were lucky

to obtain a butterfly

enclosure for a week.

Within the enclosure

the children were able

to observe the entire

life cycle of the crea-

ture. This included tiny

eggs on the leaves, caterpillars that slowly transformed into a chrysalis, as well as the orange and

black monarch butterflies themselves.

The children all had the

opportunity to help

care for the animals, as

they watered heir

plants and fed the

butterflies with fresh

nectar each day. One of

the most amazing epi-

sodes throughout the

experience, was on

Thursday, when we ob-

served a butterfly

breaking out of their

chrysalis and climbing

onto a leaf to dry out

it’s wings!

It truly was an amazing experience and privilege for all of us. It also provided thec hildren

with further opportunity to engage in conversation with their peers and teachers about

insects. They shared knowledge, creating questions upon their curiosity.

As early years professionals, our team continuously engage in critical reflection about our

practice. One of the main areas in which we do this is to realise that children are capable

and competent young people. An area where we recognised the opportunity to advocate

for this, was to reflect upon and refine our lunch time routine.

A few weeks ago, we made the decision

to encourage the children to help serve

their own lunch. First, there were discus-

sions with the children about the pro-

cess, then it was time to rock and roll!

We were not surprised with the level of

care, confidence and pride the children

displayed throughout the first attempt!

The Plateenas have continued to work on

their serving skills using different utensils,

such as tongs and large spoons. Through

these types of experiences, the children

gain self-help skills, as well as working on

fine motor skills.

Last of all, thanks to all of you who

helped with the green fair. Once again it

was an amazing event, showcasing our

amazing community spirit at Clovelly! We

couldn’t have done it without you!

The Joeys

... it’s just “ Child’s Play ”

All children have the right to play (United Nations Rights of the Child, article 31).

This right to play also underpins the Early Years Learning Framework of Australia. “ Play ” is how all mam-

mals learn, including us. At this stage of development one of the most pivotal ways we learn is through

social Cultural Play. Brunner, an eminent early children schooler states “I have come increasingly to recog-

nise that most learning in most settings is a communal activity, a sharing of the culture” (Brunner 1986).

Countless studies reinforce the importance of social-cultural play, in early childhood settings.

Here is just one of the many instances of social cultural play learning experiences that occur daily in the

Joeys.

Jemima, a Joey from last year, created an artwork e that combined a black marker pen, and purple dye.

Belinda and Valentina, two younger Joeys, approached the easel. Victoria began to explain to the girls

how to use the black marker pen and dye … to which Belinda replied … “Yes, we know, like Jemima” (This

is social cultural learning in action: Belinda and Valentia have watched and copied how Jemima painted

her artwork ).And the learning continues …. Victoria then told Jemima what Belinda had said to which she

replied … “yes I know, I’m teaching the new kids “Again , illustrating the way social cultural learning oc-

curs . Jemima, having been exposed to this style of art last year, acknowledged she is in a position to help

and teach the younger members of us).

Someone on a sailboat with a baby Cat

Jemima, Bath Hopper Belinda and Valentina,

Learning through play – provides an endless amount of opportunities for children to explore, discover, create and imagine. Play extends children’s thinking and promotes a hands on approach to learning. At Clovelly Children’s Cen-tre we endeavour to create a learning environment which encourages children to build on their learning in positive ways.

Joeys: We are makers!

In the last few weeks the Joeys have had access to a se-lection of materials for construction; at the woodwork table in the outdoors and box construction in the art ar-ea.The Joeys have carried over their skills and experience with blocks and commercial construction resources to help them think about shape and space; weight and bal-ance. Their experiences during symbolic play assists them to imagine the ways objects can be perceived and

transformed.

As the children create the Joeys teachers may ask the

following question to stimulate their creative process … for example ask:

-How will you join these materials?

Below are a few of the many things it is hoped the Joeys will learn through their experiences with these resources:

Problem solving skills.

-Why did you choose that soft/smooth/bumpy/rough piece of

paper/wood/card?

Express their ideas about the world around them.

Deepen conceptual understandings about how objects can be transformed

-How will you make your construction strong/balanced?

Staff development and inspirations with our very special

Dr Red Ruby Scarlett :

We thought you

might like to know

updates on our

professional devel-

opment …...

The entire centre is now well underway with changes to learning environments. Children are having active input through explicit consultation and educator re-flections of how children are engaging with the spaces and places . Reflective practice refers to the process of thoughtfully considering your experiences. This allows us to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and improve our practice through the reflective process.

Lively discussions amongst our staff is now common place and this creates a stimulating and positive atmosphere. This enables us to develop and extend on children's learning and build upon their knowledge and skills.

Luke, Plateenas room leader and United Voice member, is making sure our politicians understand the amount of documentation and programming that goes into a day in ECEC.

Supportive politicians like Lisa

Chesters MP visited Clovelly on

Wednesday 16th May and lis-

tened to our staff. When will

our Malcolm Turnbull and Simon

Birmingham when will you

acknowledge the level of work

that goes into our sector?